Reading Response: April 11

In "Exile and Return," Armstrong deals with two topics that for me--despite what I think to be a pretty good grasp of history and theology, particularly of the ancient world--were somewhat glossed over and unexamined. First, the Exile itself. In what I've read (and taught) previously, the Babylonian Exile was notable primarily for two things: 1) It was the first iteration of destruction and displacement, echoed and magnified 600 years later; 2) It was during the Exile that the first record was made of Judaic scripture--or at least, the first written record that survives into modern times.

In other words, Exile wasn't so much a period in time but more of a stopping point: things didn't happen during Exile; Exile was a lacuna in history between the First Temple and the Second. Armstrong fills in the gaps and turns Exile into a living, breathing time when Judaism grew, changed, developed.

These changes and developments touch on the second point that Armstrong communicates--she argues that it was during the Babylonian Exile that Judaism actually became unequivocally monotheistic. Prior to the Exile (and during it), Armstrong asserts, Yahweh was one god among many--supreme, and requiring worship exclusive from other gods. Then, during Exile, Yahweh is pronounced to be singular and sole deity.

To me, this is an interesting revelation. In the past, I had always thought of the core concepts of Judaism as being ossified by the time of Exile--I mean, the religion was already established & practiced for quite some time, with the Temple in Jerusalem at its center. Instead, it is a dynamic thing that was still adapting to the rest of the world.

And when I apply this thinking to Jerusalem itself, I see why I fell into the mindset of the religion being established and unchanging for thousands of years--because that's how we default when we think of the Israel/Palestinian dispute, or Jerusalem itself. We tend to think that the ideas, concepts, conflicts, and contestations are eternal and unchanging--that the rock-throwing & tear gas is just a modern manifestation of conflict that reaches back through time.